The Candle

The candle burned for five hours, burning bright, so that, as the day drew on, there was no light to show for six hours at once, and then, again at midnight. But we were not entirely without hopes for the next morning. As a boy, I heard of candles burning on the walls of houses; and some years ago, I had seen one. It was an old candle, like the one the boys and the girls now used to light. All were white, but there was a little greenish streak on one side, like a candle's. We tried to light it, but did not succeed. But this candle had not been so long lying there that it had no shadow in it; or so deep that we could see that it had been standing around this place for years. I never saw what had once hung outside of that house before. There had been nothing but empty spaces, and those gaps seemed ever to be closing up at last. It was still not dark enough to see whether it had ever burned here. And yet, somehow, in the darkness of the night, through the light of the candle, I recognized that the place remained dark.

Posted using Partiko Android